Need a new graphics card.

[OwenTMoL]

First of all I'd like to apologise for bringing up a thread that I'm sure you've all seen a thousand times but I really need help on this.
My Graphics card is an Intel 82810e. It's pretty poor. The damn thing won't even play "Batman: Vengeance" So anyhow I need a new one.
I started looking into the cards. I mainly focused on Geforce cards and was planning on going for the basic 5200 but since then I've been hearing bad things so I decided to scrap the idea of getting a basic graphics card. I've set out a little finance plan and my budget is £175 however that won't be for two months but I'm gonna do it.
So like I was saying, I focused mainly on geforce because To be very honest it all seemed easier. They were 3d cards and I basically worked it out as "Big numbers, better graphics."
I've found some sense since then so I'm asking for help.
I want to be able to run most games, I'm not bothered about having to turn settings down so long as they run ok. Mainly I want Doom 3.
I've heard VERY good things about radeon cards but I don't know enough about them (Like I know a Geforce 5950 is fairly top end, I know sod all when it comes to radeon).
So to summarise. I need a card in the £175 area that is high performance and relatively easy to use.

[OwenTMoL]

Actually i've just realised this is totally the wrong place for this post.
Think I can go post it in the graphics bit without getting busted for spam?
Oh um.. feel free to help anyway.

[Nick]

Yeah, it was in the wrong place, but it's no trouble to shift it for you, as I have done!

[OwenTMoL]

Cheers mate.
I hate introducing myself to a new forum with a stupid error.
It seems to be the basis of my life on the particular forum after that.
After posting the message I browsed around and found a whole section practically full of people asking the same question.

[Clstrphbc_donut]

I have a 5200 (as it says in sig) and its crap, my mx440 was better. Yea, i'll give it some credit, its not bad at running Unreal 2004, GTA Vice City etc. Only comes out with 3,000 3D Mark 2001 points. which is complete and utter pants. For around about £150, you can have yourself an ATi Radeon 9800 Pro. My mate got one hmm..2 months ago? Fitted an artic cooler and overclocked the kecks off it. his CPU (1700 @ somewhere around 2GHz) is bottlenecking his card at 15-16,000 on 3D Mark 01. So i say (after seeing benchmarks, and playing UT 2004 on both cards) a 5200 is a waste of money. Get the 128mb Radeon 9800 Pro.... Now just watch how many people back me up on this

[Applecrusher]

Well the radeon 9800 pro is probably what your looking for...

It runs around the same level as the Geforce FX 5950 some times faster, sometimes slower... for less cost i THINK...

And as you can probably tell by browsing the forum they're a good card!!

Hope this helps

Applecrusher

EDIT: just read Clstrphbc_donut's post... i back him up with that... (Just wish i could afford one )

[OwenTMoL]

Radeon 9800 Pro.
What about XT or SE or just a plain 9800?
What's the diff?

[Clstrphbc_donut]

XT's are somewhere in the £250+ price range still.....unless you hang on. XT's where the "last gen' top of the range card. With the new cards out, the XT will start to drop. just go for the Pro, you WILL NOT be disappointed. Its the 'best bang for your buck'

[OwenTMoL]

Right,
I have however hit on another small problem.
I can't buy one online and I have no idea where to get one from.
I live in Leeds. It's likely to have most big computer store chains.
I could check PC world sometime. This'll probably cost me more though right?

[Clstrphbc_donut]

DONT buy at PC World....i only buy games, and yesterday, bought a mouse coz i needed it that minute. Erm...Keep an eye out for computer fairs? Theres one every week/every 2 weeks here. You should get yourself a nice 9800 from one of them, quite possibly cheaper than off the internet!

[Defiant]

Well my friend you have picked the right time to buy as the card prices are falling in price at this very moment.

The Best of offer at the minute is the Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb AGP card.

These are currently selling for about £120-145+Delivery.

But they go like grease lightning (performance wise) So they are your best bet for a very quick card on your budget.

[Skii]

Just out of interest what are the other specs of your PC - ie Processor + Memory / motherboard ?

There is little point in investing in a fast card if the rest of your PC is too slow to take advantage of it - if ya see what i mean

[OwenTMoL]

yikes, I hope they don't start hiking up again in 2 months (Time until I have my £175, yeah you guessed it I'm only 16).
SO
To summarise.
I want a fast, high performance card and my best bet is the Radeon 9800 Pro.
Now all I need is somewhere solid to buy it which'll probably be a comupter fair. Ok sounds all very cool.
I don't generally avoid PC world though.
So you guys wouldn't advise a nVidia card then?

[Clstrphbc_donut]

Nope, I'd never buy hardware from PC World unless its a great deal on a HDD/CD-R etc. As Skii said, whats the specs of the rest of your machine? IE Motherboard, processor, ram etc?

[Nick]

Yeah, be careful. I got a Raddy 9800XT (which is awesome!).... BUUUT... I had to swap out my mobo as it wasn't compatible with my old Abit one.

Post your specs and lets go from there!

[Defiant]

yikes, I hope they don't start hiking up again in 2 months (Time until I have my £175, yeah you guessed it I'm only 16).
SO
To summarise.
I want a fast, high performance card and my best bet is the Radeon 9800 Pro.
Now all I need is somewhere solid to buy it which'll probably be a comupter fair. Ok sounds all very cool.
I don't generally avoid PC world though.
So you guys wouldn't advise a nVidia card then?

Nvidia card generally more money to performance than ATi cards.
Also don buy hardware from PC world, they rip you off a lot! Plus I still haven't managed to find a ATi 9800pro in a PC world.

why cant you buy off the internet? You not got Switch solo card or nochex or a paypal account?